Ukrainian parliament suspends its sessions due to the threat of a Russian attack

Ukrainian deputies claimed Friday that the Supreme Council or Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament, had to cancel its sessions due to a threat of a Russian attack. "Question time to the government has been canceled," ruling party deputy Yevgenia Kravchuk told AFP. "There are signs of an increased risk of attacks against the government district in the coming days."

Public broadcaster Suspilne picked up testimonies from government sources who explained they had been told to avoid official premises. The presence was minimized as much as possible, they detailed. The warning first came on Thursday and was maintained on Friday.

The threat comes shortly after the Kremlin launched a state-of-the-art medium-range missile against Ukraine, the first time it has used it since invading the neighboring country in 2022. The projectile can carry nuclear warheads, although in this case it did not carry one.

This was first indicated by Kiev and later confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a televised speech, who referred to an intercontinental ballistic missile in its "denuclearized configuration" called "Oreshnik." He claimed it had hit "a site of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex" and said, "At the moment there are no countermeasures for this weapon."

Putin warns Washington

"Since that moment, the conflict in Ukraine, provoked by the West, has acquired elements of a global character," the Russian leader also said in his appearance, lasting less than 10 minutes, in which he reacted to two Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.

They occurred in the last few days and involved U.S.-made missiles, the medium-range ATACM, and British missiles, the Storm Shadow. Ukraine fired both just days after the United States and Britain allowed it to use them on Russian soil. "We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities," Putin said in a direct message to Washington and London.

Days earlier Moscow modified its nuclear doctrine to allow the use of nuclear weapons in response to an attack with conventional ammunition inside Russia. It also stated that it would consider as a "joint attack" any offensive by a country without nuclear capabilities with the support of a nuclear-armed one (such as Ukraine with U.S. and British backing).

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre accused Moscow of using "irresponsible" rhetoric and assured that "escalation at every turn and every step is coming from Russia," according to AFP. Ukranian president 

Volodymyr Zelensky mirrored her words after Putin's public address, claiming the Oreshnik launch was his second escalation this year after inviting north korean troops to his side: "The use of a ballistic missile against Ukraine today is yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace."